---
title: Then Ahti, the nimble boaster, spoke up and said, “Why should we sti… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Ahti, the nimble boaster, spoke up and said, “Why should we still speak in whispers, fearing to be heard? Who acts: Ahti, we. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 57

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Then Ahti, the nimble boaster, spoke up and said, “Why should we still speak in whispers, fearing to be heard?

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**Who acts:** Ahti, we · **What happens:** speak up, say, speak, fear, hear · **To what, where:** whispers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ahti, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:36:57
# text = Then Ahti, the nimble boaster, spoke up and said, “Why should we still speak in whispers, fearing to be heard?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
2	Ahti	Ahti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	nimble	nimble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boaster	boaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
15	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	whispers	whisper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
22	fearing	fear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak up** *speech: other* | past | Ahti |  |  |  | then |  | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Ahti *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | should | we |  |  | whispers | still |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fear** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hear** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus» |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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